I've always had a sweet tooth--I love the junk food and sugar in nearly all its incarnations. This morning, I saw an article on NPR called, "Junk Food Jones Is Wired in Your Brain." This confirmed what I suspected--I am an addict. It was shown in a fascinating bit of research which could even diverge into a discussion of ethics and animal research.One quote: "Inside their little brains, the junk-food eating rats developed a big problem. Just like drug takers, the rats needed a bigger fix of junk food over time to maintain their pleasure. So they kept on eating, and kept on getting fatter. As the scientists explained in their paper, "extended access to palatable high-fat food can induce addiction-like deficits in brain reward function," which can spur overeating and lead to obesity."
If nothing else, this offers some good insight into the workings of the addicted brain and one factor in the obesity epidemic in the US.
